Combination Techniques

Baibai's suggestion opened a door.

Chen Miemie also had quite a few good ideas of his own.

He selected three usable plants.

The first was the [Cloud-Veined Banyan].

From a distance, this banyan tree looked like a dense, un-dispersing cloud with veins. Up close, small leaves and berries could be seen growing within its root network. The entire plant moved together with the cloud mass.

It possessed an extremely developed aerial root system, like a massive, dense grayish-white net that firmly "wrapped" and solidified an entire cloud, preventing it from easily dissipating. It was often used to create stable "floating islands in the sky."

The second was the [Vortex Thorn].

This was a special type of thorn with propeller-shaped leaves that could use high-altitude air currents to continuously and slowly rotate. Its root system delved deep into the air currents like an anchor chain, making the whole thing look like a floating, slowly spinning bladed top.

The third was the [Light Dust Moss].

It was not a single plant, but a symbiotic complex of moss, lichen, and special fungi. It used dust in the clouds, meteorite particles, and even the scattered microscopic remains of ancient creatures as its "soil."

It was said that meditating while sitting on it might allow one to perceive fragmented glimpses of the sky's past.

The "Encyclopedia of Marvels" was a comprehensive collection of magical things gathered by humans, and its plant section took up the most space.

In this mysterious world, some things were difficult to accurately define and classify.

Plants undoubtedly possessed life, but because they rarely moved and were difficult to interact with, it was hard to say whether certain strange species were Anomalies or not.

Functionally, they were marvelous and even possessed something akin to passive lethality, but because they could not communicate, it was difficult to judge whether they had intelligence.

You couldn't just say a flower was an Anomaly with a passive ability just because its pollen was highly poisonous.

All these ambiguous things were put into the "Encyclopedia of Marvels."

The three plants Chen Miemie chose all belonged to this category.

The task of collecting the plants was ultimately handed over to Dawn, the [President].

Marvels were not ordinary objects; without a certain amount of social influence, they were hard to acquire quickly.

Chen Miemie had inherited an excellent tradition from the [Court of the Silver Moon].

That was to keep meetings as brief as possible. Get straight to the point, and dismiss once everything was said, without dragging out formalities just to fill time.

After he announced the end of the meeting, it was free time for the members.

Everyone began to gather privately to chat.

Kassan was both scared and curious.

She decided to start with those she was more familiar with.

Among the Anomalies present, she knew three: Bobo, Loop, and Sedan Chair.

Originally, she didn't know Loop was an Anomaly, but now Loop wasn't hiding her legs.

Kassan walked up to Bobo.

"Bobo?"

Bobo was busy discussing the roast chicken shop's delivery business with Road Rage. Hearing her name, she wiggled her butt, turned around, and looked up.

"Oh, it's Kassan. Are you hungry? Do you want a bite of a crispy roast chicken leg?"

Kassan quickly shook her head. "No, no need."

Are you kidding me? She didn't know before, but now that she knew, eating her would be asking for death.

Bobo immediately wiggled her butt again and ignored her.

Loop walked over, picked up Bobo, and tore off a chicken leg. "Bobo just likes being shared. Our expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness here are very direct; we don't do pleasantries."

"Oh, okay." In her daze, Kassan had a chicken leg stuffed into her mouth.

Dawn went straight to Chen Miemie.

"Chen Miemie, why are you hosting the meeting? Where is President [Huangyi]?"

Chen Miemie was very smug. "I don't know. When [Huangyi] isn't around, I'm the one in charge."

Dawn was highly skeptical. "You can command the members here? There are quite a few here whose depths I can't see at all, at least Danger Level 7. Don't play the fox exploiting the tiger's might too much and end up annoying them."

Dawn emphasized "Danger Level 7."

Her meaning was clear: [Trial] was at this level, and a single person had toyed with the entire city in the palm of their hand.

Chen Miemie quickly clarified his title. "I'm the organization's diplomat. Aside from [Huangyi], I'm the only one with an official position whose words count."

On the other side, in a corner.

The giant snail, Lost Track, had made a new friend.

"Road Rage, you mean you can possess any road?"

"Yes, as long as it's a road, physical and concrete. It can't be conceptual, like a 'train of thought' or a 'mental journey'."

Lost Track came up with a brilliant idea:

"My ability is to create misleading paths that make people lose their way, and they are also physical. If you possessed the misleading paths I create, what would the effect be?"

Road Rage paused, clearly moved by this idea. "Let's find someone to test it on."

Lost Track looked around and found the perfect test subject.

The snail rode a small cloud and drifted in front of Joker.

"Mr. Joker, I heard you like playing games with people. I have a new game here; I wonder if you're interested?"

Joker had a surprised expression. "Really? Then I definitely have to give it a try. How do we play?"

Lost Track gestured to a spot about 500 meters ahead.

"That is the finish line. You try to get there. You'll encounter some obstacles along the way that you'll need to figure out how to overcome. If you reach the finish line, you win the game."

Just as the game was about to start.

A paper figure also joined in: "Can I join? I also have an ability called 'Lost Track' that can enhance the game's effects."

The game participants had no objections.

Thus, the three-player game became a four-player game.

"Start," Lost Track announced.

Joker took a step toward the finish line.

500 meters wasn't far, especially for a Danger Level 6 like Joker.

But he ran into trouble just on his third step.

The road paved with clouds beneath his feet lost its support as soon as he stepped on it. His entire foot sank, and he fell forward.

If it weren't for his excellent reflexes and physical coordination, he probably would have fallen flat.

However, just this couldn't stump Joker.

He crazily tiptoed, using a peculiar movement technique, his whole body twisting as he moved forward.

Even though the ground beneath his feet was uneven, he could adjust in time to steady himself.

Like this, he advanced 100 meters.

A new situation arose at the 101st meter.

In Joker's vision, the world changed.

Originally, there was a straight line between him and his target.

But now, across his entire field of vision, the straight line had turned into twisted, irregular lines.

The lines split from one to two, two to four, four to eight, quickly becoming countless bizarre curves.

These curves were still slowly twisting, like living dough twists.

Joker lost his sense of direction.

He didn't know which way to go, didn't know where was safe, and also lost his judgment of the distance to the target.

The game here attracted quite a bit of attention.

From the perspective of bystanders.

The cloud path between Joker and the target point looked like a swung jump rope, twisted and unpredictable.

Joker himself did not give up.

He began trying various methods.

At first, he tried to destroy some of the misleading paths.

The cloud path was light, and Joker was powerful; he successfully completed the destruction.

Unfortunately, his speed of destruction couldn't keep up with the new generation. The 'process of elimination' approach wouldn't work.

Next, he began to attack himself. He sliced open his own arm with a small knife, generating intense pain.

His logic was that everything in front of him was an illusion, and he could break free from the illusion's control through pain.

Unfortunately, the distorted path was real, not an illusion, so this approach did not work either.

After that, he tried charging forward with his eyes closed, only to end up running further and further away from his target.

He tried throwing a knife at his original target, but even the knife spun in mid-air, its entire blade becoming twisted.

He tried attacking Mitu and Origami, but similarly could not reach them.

In the end, he had no choice but to accept defeat.

No one laughed at Joker.

Because this was not a fair game.

Joker was challenging Mitu, Origami, and Road Rage all by himself.

Even Red and Baibai, who had reached Tier 7 under the blessing of the Eternal Moon at this moment, would not dare say they could reach the destination if they stepped up.

This was not a simple one-versus-three. The combination skill created by the trio was a super ability formed by using Mitu's power as the medium, Origami adding the quality of spatial chaos, and Road Rage providing the quantity of path intensity.

Joker had only walked a little over a hundred meters; if he went any further, he would also face the attacks of the path itself, which would be even more terrifying.

"Hehe, this game isn't bad. I like it here." Joker was actually having a pretty good time.

Chen Miemie stepped forward: "This move is powerful, and it's really cool. You guys should give it a name."

After Mitu, Origami, and Road Rage discussed it for a moment, Mitu spoke up:

"Then let's call it [Path of Perdition]."